Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Then and Now


So, recently I showed you what I was doing back then, now I'll show you what I'm doing right now... well, not right now, but this last week, including today, when the sun was out..

So, firstly, here is a painting I've been working on of my father-in-law, Michel. I'm about three layers in but there'll be a few more coming, bringing the large masses together and softening edge, bringing in more light in some areas, reducing it in others, adding hue and taking it down a notch... you get the picture. He has requested that a bird be added so he does not feel alone, so I'm thinking about that one. It's tricky because I don't want the bird to be a distraction. I was tempted to get completely silly about it and have one coming out of his pocket or pulling a bee out of his ear ear or something... well we'll se what happens with that, time will tell. It's a bit blue and overexposed due to my slow learning curve in photography and Photoshop. I'll get that one figured out some day.


7 comments:

Lybil said...

Need some Photoshop tips for photography ? Please, let me know.

KIm said...

Thanks Lybil! I think I just need to take a better photo. It's something to do with the white balance on my camera. Need to figure that out. But I will definitely pick your brain some time. Right now, I'm just playing with it to try and learn it. I've got three photo programs now and still couldn't get the color or exposure right, but at least now I'm trying! Ok, here was my problem. The original photo was very, very blue and I tried to compensate for that with color layers and the brightness and contrast. LIke I said though, I think it's about taking a decent photo first!

Andrea Duggan said...

Hi Kim, I see three places for a bird, 1 - very small and flying between the two trees on the right hand side, in the sky. 2 - perched on the bushes on the left. 3 - right there on his shoulder, sybolizing something. I don't think it would distract, I think it would be very cool. Beautiful painting, btw.

KIm said...

Thanks, Andrea. I'll keep your ideas in mind. Need to get back to this one. It got put to the side as I'm working on another portrait and because I really don't want to work from photos anymore. I like the idea of the bird but I guess I have to find the story to tell myself about him and then the painting will make more sense if I put him in it. Don't just want to put in the random bird here or there. Glad you like the painting so far!

Melanie said...

Hey Kim! ... so where did the bird end up?
=)

Melanie said...

Hey Kim! So... where did the bird go? =)

KIm said...

Still haven't finished this one. Don't know for sure if I will. Thanks for reminding me though! Still might happen... So, still no bird!

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